


Swallowed by Starlight

by IdleJane



Category: Altered Carbon (TV)
Genre: Dreams, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Kissing, Takeshi really loves Quellcrist and it's tearing me up inside!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-04
Updated: 2018-03-04
Packaged: 2019-03-26 18:46:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 808
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13863756
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IdleJane/pseuds/IdleJane
Summary: It’s been ages since they’ve touched like this, years, decades, centuries.





	Swallowed by Starlight

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this out of selfish love and adoration for Quellcrist Falconer who I feel isn't getting the love she so obviously deserves!

He’s dreaming, he knows that. 

But as her arms close around him he can’t help but turn his face against her chest and breathe in the smell of her skin. 

It’s been ages since they’ve touched like this, years, decades, centuries. 

She’s got a hand tangled up in his hair, her chin tilted back as she stares unblinkingly up at the night sky. Her eyes are glittering and black, the curve of her lower lip quivering ever so slightly in the chill of night. Takeshi follows her gaze up to the moon, a silver point in a strip of blackness. He feels the warmth of a fire close at his back and he shivers absently even though he’s not cold. Quell doesn’t move, even though he knows that she knows he’s awake. Her lower lip twitches ever so slightly, the grip in his hair growing gentler, the look in her eyes softening.

The moonlight makes her even more beautiful than he remembered her being. None of his memories of her did her any justice. She’s nothing short of terrifying now that he can touch her, now that she’s as real as she can ever be. Takeshi grips the hem of her tunic in his hands and just breathes her in. He feels the crease in his forehead smooth out when Quell rubs her thumb there like she knew he was thinking too hard.

Always ten steps ahead of him.

He’s missed her so much.

“You’re up,” she says, her voice soft and sunken to a whisper. 

Takeshi turns in her embrace, watching as she angles her head down to look him square in the eye. Pools of stars stare back at him and he has to turn away. He buries his face into the palm of her hand, her heart beat real and steady on his cheek.

“You’re not supposed to be here,” she pulls his hair gently, forcing him to look at her.

“Where’s here?” he asks, taking in the soft lull of waves crashing on the shore. A rock digs into his hip as he stares out over the ocean. 

Home world. 

They’re back in the forest. 

“You’re dreaming,” Quellcrist shifts against him, turning to study him. She gives him a cursory once over, checking for injuries. A habit that she hasn’t kicked even after death. 

Takeshi warms at that, finds himself doing the same to her. 

He’s relieved when he finds nothing. 

“I figured as much,” he sits up, angling his body as close to her as she’ll allow. She places a hand on his chest, closing her eyes when he leans closer, the heat of her breath on his face something that he hadn’t realized he missed until this moment. 

“You have to go back,” she says even as she’s closing the gap and kissing him. 

Her lips are soft against his. 

Reverent. 

Like she’s memorizing the feel of him. 

“I miss you,” Takeshi says. “I miss you so much.”

“Tak,” Quell starts, the words leaving her mouth in a shaky exhale. “You have to go we-” 

Takeshi allows her to lean back but he can’t help but follow her. There’s something ancient and sad behind her eyes and it aches to see her like this. Her eyelashes flutter and he can see the tears beginning to form. Quell holds fast, brushing her pain off with a grit of her teeth but Takeshi can see right through her. He’s spent so much time looking at her that he knew a tell when he saw one. 

She’s hurting. 

Her lips part and Takeshi presses against them in a kiss, his hands sliding up her arms, to her shoulders and then to her neck. 

“I love you,” he says. 

And he means it.

He means it a thousand times over.

The frown clears off her face as she turns her cold cheek into his palm, “and I you.”

Takeshi smooths back the fly away hairs from her face, trying his best to memorize as much of her as he could. He’d wake up and she’d be gone again, a distant memory, his moral compass. 

Always with him and always out of reach. 

He brings his other hand up to her cheek, enfolding her in his palms for as long as this moment will allow. 

Darkness grows all around them but her eyes still hold the universe within them, shimmering pools of starlight. 

Takeshi swallows past the tight feeling in his throat. 

He has to be strong for her. 

He has no other choice.

“I’ll find you,” he says, pressing his forehead against hers. “I’ll find you.”

“I know,” she says, tilting her head away from him, her thumb absently brushing over his eyebrow as she blinks at the night sky. “I just wish you wouldn’t try.”

Darkness consumes him and pulls him out of the dream.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed it!


End file.
